Midnighters Fanfiction: The New Guy
by Defenderofpigeons
Summary: An alternate interpretation of the ending of Midnighters 1:The Secret Hour. There's a new midnighter in town, but why hasn't Melissa sensed him? Updated!
1. Chapter 1

"You said this place was made out of steel!" Rex cried, ducking as winged darklings flew in from each window and bombarded themselves against us.

"I'm sorry! People make mistakes!" Jessica Day yelled back as she shown her key chain flashlight in the direction of another encroaching darkling. Its cries created an ear-splitting cacophony as it burst into blue flames.

"People don't _make _mistakes when it comes to life and death situations!" Rex cried. A particularly large and ferocious looking darkling with horns and knife length claws began closing in on Rex, flapping its leathery, black wings. Rex closed his eyes and threw "Anachronistic," a steel key holder he'd made in machine shop class in the direction of the darkling. Rex opened his eyes again after "Anachronistic" had left his hand. The steel key holder struck the darkling directly on its arm, and in a firework display of blue sparks, the darkling's arm fell off, but much to Rex's dismay, had dissolved into at least a dozen slithers, which continued multiplying until Rex, Melissa, Jonathan, Dess and Jessica had been cornered by a sea of black, wriggling slithers.

"That was my last one!" Rex cried fearfully.

"Use these only on the slithers!" Dess said, scooping out handfuls of hubcaps and distributing them to everyone.

"What do we do about the darklings?" Jonathan asked.

"Don't worry, Jess is gonna handle them," Dess assured him.

"Um, guys, I think I'm running low on batteries," Jess said. She'd abandoned her key chain flashlight for the larger one she'd kept in her jacket, but the beam of light was already faltering.

"Didn't I tell you to change the batteries before midnight?" Dess said exasperatedly.

"I _did_, but I'm not completely sure if they were new ones. I found them in the basement."

"Well there's your answer," Melissa said. The beam of light from Jess's flashlight shown weakly on an incoming darkling, reducing its effectiveness and allowing the darklings greater proximity to the huddled group of teenagers before finally bursting into flames.

"Quick, form a barrier with the hubcaps I gave you," Dess said, kneeling down and scooping thumbtacks and hubcaps out of her backpack and spreading them out evenly in front of her. Everyone else followed suit and soon they were surrounded by explosions of blue light and slithers.

"Come on, come on," Jess urged, hitting her flashlight with the palm of her hand. It had stopped working, which meant that they would either have to leave, or become darkling chow.

"Jonathan?" Dess asked.

"I'm way ahead of you. Everyone, hold on," Jonathan said, climbing up onto the windowsill. Dess dumped the remnants of her bookbag onto the slithers, which were closing in fast, and had barely grabbed ahold of Jonathan's hand when he suddenly leapt out of the window. Dess once again felt that wonderful light, buoyant feeling she remembered well from the last time she defied gravity with Jonathan, but rather than relishing the feeling of the air rushing past her, she only felt irritated by Rex's elbow constantly jabbing into her side.

"Incoming!" Jonathan cried, and Dess had barely turned her head and allowed her mind to process the darkling approaching them at an alarming speed when she suddenly felt her hand leave Jonathan's.

"Dess!" she heard Jonathan cry. The buoyant feeling had disappeared, and instead Dess felt her body plummeting towards the ground, the wind roaring in her ears and her hands grasping nothing but air. Something was holding her, something with claws that dug painfully into her back. Dess kept her eyes firmly shut, gritting her teeth against the pain that she would feel once the darkling had ended her life. Landing on concrete was preferable. If only she hadn't used all her ammo on the slithers back at the J. Miller building. Dess tried to think of anything, anything at all that would distract her mind from her imminent death. Math! Math had always mollified her. _We just jumped from the seventh floor of the Miller building. The height of each room is approximately 3 yards, so when the darkling had attacked me, we were 21 yards in the air. And if I'm falling extremely fast, in approximately how much time will I land? _The painful sensation of claws stabbing Dess' back had been replaced by prickling as she felt herself land on something that was rubbery yet hard in certain places. _Now, I guess._ But something heavy and breathing was still on top of her, and warm hands were gripping her waist. _Hands?_ Dess opened her eyes and gasped when she discovered that it was a young man on top of her, and he was neither Rex nor Jonathan. His eyes, a shocking clear blue, looked down at her and widened.

"I'm sorry," he said, immediately releasing her and attempting to sit up, but it was difficult to remain stable on the garbage bags they had landed on. Dess' legs had felt slightly numb, but now that the young man was sitting at the other end of the garbage bin, she felt colder than before.

"It's okay, but, where's the darkling?" she asked, her eyes darting around the dimly lit alley they were in.

"Oh, you mean that big hairy thing that tried to fly off with you? I threw a license plate at it and it just flew off. I didn't know they were afraid of license plates."

"It must've been made of stainless steel. Darklings don't like steel, or any new type of metal. I don't understand though, how'd you end up here?" Dess asked.

"I wanted to make sure you didn't land on the concrete," the young man said seriously.

"Oh," Dess said, although this didn't make much sense to her either, but she was touched that he cared that much about her, even though she was a complete stranger to him. "Thanks for saving me then."

"No problem." He smiled, and Dess' heart, which had been beating at an alarming rate when she'd been up in the air with the darkling, suddenly began racing again, but for an entirely different reason.

"Don't you think we should get out of here? It kinda reeks," Dess said. "Oh, sure," the young man said, climbing out of the garbage bin. Dess swung one leg over the edge of the garbage bin, trying not to think about how stupid she probably looked, but the young man had placed his hands on her waist and was lifting her out of the bin and onto the ground. "Thanks," Dess said again. The young man just smiled and took her hand, leading her out of the alley and onto the street. The moon had cast a soft blue glow onto the streets that was typical of midnight. Dess looked around. The neighborhood seemed unfamiliar and her friends were nowhere to be seen. "What's your name?" Dess asked, not wanting to refer to him as the 'young man' forever.

"I'm James. What's yours?"

"Dess. How long have you lived in Bixby James?"

"Not too long. I only moved here from New York about a month ago." A month ago? Why hadn't Melissa sensed him? Or did she sense him and choose not to say anything about it? But that made no sense. Why would she have a reason not to? The others would be very excited when they found out there was another midnighter in their midst. "What school do you go to?" Dess asked.

"Bixby High."

"Senior?"

"Yeah."

"Don't you find this midnight thing a little strange?" Dess asked. James seemed so unnaturally calm for a newcomer. She remembered with some amusement how Jess had assumed that the midnight hour was only a dream.

"When I first came here, I thought it was a dream, but I've gotten used to it and I've realized that everything's too real to be a dream. Those 'darklings' are a little too real for me."

"If you want I can show you how to defend yourself against the darklings. My friends are midnighters too, so you're not the only one out there."

"I think I can handle midnight. I've made it this far haven't I?" James also seemed awfully brave for a new Midnighter. But maybe that was why Dess admired him so much. Dess noticed that the blue light that had blanketed the streets was receding, and within moments, the lampposts once again cast an orange glow on the streets and sidewalks and sounds of insects and birds chirping rang through the night.

"James?" Dess asked. She'd glanced to her side and discovered that James had miraculously disappeared. _Oh well. See you in the next 8,280 seconds_, Dess thought.

"Dess!" a familiar voice cried. Rex was running towards her, followed by Jonathan, Melissa and Jessica.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Dess asked Jess.

Jess rolled her eyes. "I was worried about you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I thought you were a goner!" Rex cried.

"Am I the only one who has faith in Dess?" Jonathan said incredulously, hugging me. "Seriously though, are you alright?" he muttered in her ear.

Dess laughed. "I'm fine. This guy named James claimed he saved me."

"Wait, there's another midnighter?" Rex asked. "Melissa, you never said anything."

"That's because I never sensed anything," Melissa said. But she was looking pensive.

"Melissa's pretty in tune with her ESP, so there must be some mistake," Jess said.

"But there wasn't a mistake. I saw him with my own two eyes. Maybe Melissa made a mistake."

"Melissa wouldn't make a mistake," Rex countered.

"Guys, stop before you get into an argument," Melissa warned, closing her eyes briefly. "Maybe I did make a mistake," she said quietly. "I must've gotten confused with all the darklings flying around. I think I need to meet him. Then I'll understand why I haven't sensed him."

"He goes to Bixby High. You can start looking for him tomorrow. And if that doesn't work, we can wait until midnight."

"Alright then. Now let's go before we get caught by the cops," Rex said.

"Did James happen to tell you when how long he's been living here?" Melissa asked.

"He said he moved in a month ago," Dess replied.

"That's weird. I think I'll meditate on it."

Jess yawned. "And I think I'll call it a night," she said, linking arms with Jonathan, who grinned down at her.

"Me too," Dess said happily. Midnight now had another perk.


	2. Chapter 2

Dess's gaze scanned Bibxby High's cafeteria anxiously. She leaned toward Melissa and asked, "Have you sensed him yet?"

Melissa gave Dess a crippling look and said, her patience wearing thin, "For the thousandth time, no."

"Thousandth? You _know _I only asked you three times."

"It was only sarca-," Melissa sighed, "Never mind. Polymaths," she muttered, adjusting the volume on her CD player to its maximum.

"Are you sure he goes to this school Dess?" Jessica asked, ripping off a piece of Jonathan's sandwich. She grimaced at the uncanny taste of apple sauce mixed with peanut butter and Jonathan grinned.

"That's what he told me."

"You sure you weren't, I don't know, hallucinating maybe?" Rex suggested.

"Rex has a point Dess. You went through a pretty scary experience. It's possible you made James up."

"What do you mean I made him up? If James wasn't there, I'd be digested darkling chow right now."

Jessica shrugged. "We'll just have to see I guess."

As Dess adjusted the anklet of bottlecaps and washers around her boot, Dess watched the time on her radio clock. 11:59. She sighed and stood up. As the soft glow of blue light permeated her bedroom, Dess pulled open her window and climbed out onto the roof and into the silent void. Her gaze scanned the horizon, searching for any of the other Midnighters, especially one particular person…Why hadn't she seen him in school today? Why hadn't Melissa sensed him? Had she really made him up? Dess always thought her mind worked like clockwork, but apparently, it may have a few loose springs to it. She scaled down the side of her house using a ladder she had propped up there. At the second to last rung, she released both her feet, falling onto the pavement with a soft thud. She turned around and gasped. "Hey," James said.

"Don't scare me like that," Dess cried, barely catching her breath.

"Sorry. I couldn't wait to see you."

"Then why didn't I see you in school today?" Dess demanded. Realizing how harsh her tone sounded, she turned away from him and began walking.

"It's not that easy to find one person out of all the students at Bixby," James reasoned.

"You're right. It's just-," Dess turned around again, "My friends started saying that I was crazy and I only made you up-,"

"Hey," James said, suddenly closing the distance between them, "I'm very real."

Dess looked up at him, her eyes searching his face. His eyes crinkled at the edges as his face split into a small smile. "Hit me," she said.

A look of confusion suddenly spread across his face. "What?"

"Hit me," Dess repeated.

"Why?"

"You can say that you're real, but for all I know, you could be, well, not real." James nodded and lifted his hand, placing it against Dess's cheek, where it felt warm and soothing.

"See?" he said softly. "Real."

"Dess!" a distant voice suddenly called. Dess left her monetary lapse into a reverie and reluctantly turned around. Jonathan landed a few feet in front of her, with Jessica in tow, who was quickly smoothing her windswept hair. "Is that James?" Jonathan asked.

"Oh, yeah. James, this is Jonathan and Jessica," Dess said distantly, still unable to completely disentangle herself from her trance.

"Hey," James said, clapping his hand against Jonathan's arm and shaking Jessica's hand. Jessica gave Dess a discreet look of approval.

"Melissa and Rex are gonna be here any hour or so," Jonathan said.

Dess raised an eyebrow. "We only have one hour. Even less."

"I know, but they decided they wanted to bike the way here. I think they wanted some privacy."

"So there _is _something going on between them?" Dess asked.

"Well, they've been touching each other a lot more lately," Jessica said. She made a face. "Did that sound a little wrong to you?"

"Just a little," Jonathan replied, looking slightly sick.

"Oh!" Jessica suddenly exclaimed, a grin spreading across her features. "Look." She pulled a metallic blue flashlight from her back pocket. "I came prepared." She pulled the switch up and the device's mouth suddenly emitted a dense beam of bright, yellow light. James suddenly staggered backward, recoiling. "James?" Dess asked nervously, placing a hand on his back. Jessica had cut off the ray of light, but James didn't recover.

"That was really bright," he said when he stood up again.

"Yeah it was. Try not to aim directly into the eyes Jess," Dess told her.

"There are some people whose skin pigments are ultrasensitive under light, and your skin is pretty fair so I think you might have that condition," Jessica said.

"Maybe," James said distractedly, inspecting his arms as though expecting to see some damage done to his skin.

"Maybe its just a midnighters symptom, like the one I have. Sun's totally killer on my eyes," Dess said. At the sound of the whir of rotating pedals, Dess shifted her gaze onto the street. Rex and Melissa parked their bicycles in front of Jonathan and Melissa.

"This James?" Rex demanded. Dess nodded.

Melissa took off her sunglasses and her eyes narrowed. "You!" she said to James.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I'm so sorry I waited so long before updating. I got caught up in school work and everything. Everything about James will be explained by the end of the story, so keep reading! I finally edited this chapter. Sorry about the errors guys. The weather's been getting to me. Enjoy!

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James stared blankly at Melissa, as did everyone else.

"Yeah, James has English Lit with me. Not that I ever paid attention in class, but that still doesn't keep other people's thoughts out. You've got a real perv on your hands Dess."

Dess was still reeling from Melissa's previous comment, and was too distracted to think of an appropriate comeback as she normally would've done. "Wait, you _know _him?"

"Didn't you just hear what I said?" Melissa snapped.

"But that makes no sense. How could you not have sensed him?" Rex asked.

Melissa didn't reply immediately. She was watching James closely. A smile crept across her lips. "I think I know why," she said quietly. She stepped closer to him. Although her stare was cringe worthy, James met her gaze head on. "You're blocking me, aren't you?"

"He's a mindcaster," Rex realized.

"And a pretty good one, if he can keep me out. When did you first realize you could read people's minds?" Melissa asked.

"When I first moved to Bixby."

"And when was that?"

"About a month ago."

Melissa scoffed. "You're telling me you managed to hone your telepathy in just a couple of weeks? If that's true, then I feel terrible."

Dess smiled discreetly. She liked this new jealous side of Melissa.

"Not unless there was someone to teach him," Jonathan suggested.

"Madeleine. She's the only other mindcaster here in Bixby," Dess said.

"Yeah, unless there are other cases like James," Rex pointed out.

"Ouch," Melissa grimaced.

"Wait, this still doesn't explain why Melissa couldn't sense him," Jessica said.

"Yes it does," Melissa countered. "If James really is as good a mindcaster as he makes himself out to be, he would've probably been able to block me from his thoughts and project new thoughts into my mind. Funny that we never got to know each other."

Not wanting Melissa to get any ideas, Dess said hurriedly, "It's getting late. We should probably go see Madeleine now."

"Let's go with Dess's idea Melissa. You can't do much on your own," Jessica said.

Melissa shot her a withering look. "Speak for yourself, Flashlight girl." She began tugging on the fingertips of her right-hand glove.

"Don't even think about it," Dess warned. She recalled the time when Melissa had touched her against her own will, and wished she hadn't.

"Don't worry about your boyfriend Dess. He'll probably be able to handle it."

"I will," James assured a very unassured Dess. She winced as Melissa's hand wrapped around his wrist. She glanced at Rex and noticed that he wasn't looking.

Melissa's expression was serene for a few moments. She could've easily been testing out a new song on her MP3 player. Then Dess noticed a sudden wrinkle in her forehead, the corners of her lips fall, and within moments her entire expression was contorted in pain. James's expression remained impassive, which terrified Dess even more than Melissa's reaction.

"What are you doing!" Rex cried, prying the two mindcasters apart. Melissa keeled over, gasping for breath.

"What the hell?" she wheezed.

"I'm wondering the same thing," Rex said, turning to face James. "What did you do?" He sounded more scared than furious.

"I wasn't just going to let her invade my privacy like that."

"He decided to play scrapbook with my memories," Melissa said, finally straightening up. "James, if you're be like that, why don't we go see another mindcaster?" Melissa said sweetly.

"We don't have an extra bike," Rex pointed out.

"We can walk," Melissa said.

"You wanna walk 5 miles?"

"Look, I can drop Jessica and Dess off first and then make a roundtrip and pick up James-," Jonathan began, but he suddenly remembered what had just transpired between Melissa and James. "On second thought, I'll just drop off Jessica and Dess."

Melissa rolled her eyes. "You know what? Let James use your bike Rex. Jonathan can take you to Madeleine's. Besides, it'll give me a chance to get to know him a little better."

"You sure that's a good idea? After what he just did to you? Let me go with him," Dess insisted. She needed to talk to him.

"It can't work out that way. Just try a few minutes of being separated from him. I think you'll survive," Melissa said sardonically.

"It's not that," Dess argued. But Melissa ignored her.

_Dess._ She shuddered and looked at James, whose hand was on her shoulder.

_What?_

_Let's go somewhere._

_What are you talking about? Aren't we going to see Madeleine?_

_You can go if you want. I'm leaving._

Dess glanced at Melissa, who was watching them closely.

_Don't worry about her. I'm screening our conversation._

_For me too? How?_

_Through physical contact. So what do you say?_

_How are we gonna leave?_

"Guys, we need to get moving now. Darklings are on their way," Melissa suddenly said.

_How's that for a distraction? _James said.

_I can't just leave them here._

_Don't worry about them._

_What do you mean? Of course I have to worry about them._

_Don't you trust me?_

_Not after what you did to Melissa. I don't even know why I trusted you from the beginning._

_It's because of what she did to you, right?_

_Stop it._ Dess reached up to pry his fingers off her shoulder, but he grasped her hand instead.

_I won't do what she did to you. _

_But you can._

_I have a choice. _

_Then I have absolutely nothing to worry about._

_What would make you trust me?_

_How about giving me some privacy?_

_Sorry, it's just a habit. But if I let go of you, she'll know everything we've just talked about._

"Dess!" Jonathan cried, hovering hand-in-hand with Jessica a few inches off the concrete.

She glanced at James. "I'm gonna stay with him," she said.

Melissa rolled her eyes. "Fine. Jonathan will just have to take me and Rex along for the ride." _We'll talk later_, she promised Dess.

Dess watched the trio sail off into the air. Once they left her sight, she tried to pull her hand away.

"Not yet. Melissa could still be listening. We'll wait until they reach Madeleine's. You still don't trust me?"

"Not until you explain what's going on."

He let go of her. "Melissa pretty much explained everything."

"No. You're still hiding something. Why else would you block Melissa?"

"Everyone has secrets. I just don't want Melissa to broadcast them."

"You were just digging around in my mind. Do you think you're being fair?"

"I was only skimming the surface."

"But you could've gone further."

"No," James smiled wryly, "Too much math."

Dess had to smile at that. "So James, how did you get so good?"

"The way anyone learns things. Trial and error."

"Melissa had years and she hasn't mastered it as well as you have."

"Well, to some people, it just comes naturally. Don't worry about Melissa. She's not used to competition."

"I don't mind at all." Dess looked skyward. "Shouldn't we be leaving-,"

"They're gone."

"That's weird. Darklings usually don't make false alarms."

"You don't know much about them, do you?"

"They're just usually predictable."

"They're bound to have some trick up their sleeves. Kind of like those weapons you keep in your room."

"When were you in my room?"

"I never was. Are you inviting me?"

Dess laughed. "You really are perverted, aren't you?"

James opened his mouth to reply but suddenly closed it.

"What?"

"They're coming back."

"The darklings?"

"No. Your friends."

"Crap."

"Come on." James led her over to the bikes.

"We're not gonna outbike them."

"Not if they don't know where we are."

"Where are we going?"

"Just follow me."

Dess stayed put and watched him climb onto Rex's bike. James looked up and sighed. "It'll be a nice surprise. I promise."

"I think I've had about enough of surprises," Dess muttered, walking over and picking up Melissa's bicycle.


	4. Chapter 4

"James!" Dess had to yell above the furious whir of her pedals.

James glanced back at her. "What?"

"We only have 20 minutes and 15 seconds before-,"

"We'll make it back on time."

Dess rolled her eyes. He would always be one step ahead of her. At least with him she wouldn't have to waste her breath when she already needed it to peddle without passing out.

James stole another glance at her. He seemed to be laughing to himself. He knew how much she was suffering.

_Shut up_, she said.

_Stop your bike_.

_What?_

_Just do it._

Dess, relieved and confused, pulled the brakes on Melissa's bike and climbed off. She nearly collapsed.

"Come on," James said, hardly shaken from the four miles and three meters they'd just biked, and grabbed her hand.

As she let him lead her, she realized that she was gradually gaining speed. Not losing energy, but regaining it, and more.

"Are you-, she began, looking up at James.

He grinned down at her. "Mind over matter."

"You'd be useful to have around."

"I'm hoping you'll let me stick around."

"Are they still on to us?"

"They've given up."

Dess dropped his hand and stopped. She suddenly realized something else.

"James, we're heading toward the badlands."

"I know." He continued walking, but stopped when Dess pulled him up short.

"James, that's where darklings _live_."

"They won't hurt us."

"Just like they haven't in the past, right? You remembered how we met."

"I'd never forget."

"Then you see my point."

"Which is?"

Dess sighed exasperatedly and whirled around.

"Wait, where are you going?" James asked.

"To find someone who'll take me seriously."

"Dess," James called after her. "C'mon Dess. Life's no fun if you can't joke around, right?"

"Death is no laughing matter James."

"I hang out there all the time! They never come out. Would I put _both_ our lives in danger?"

"You're lying. Even when we're miles away from the badlands they try to kill us. You know what? I'm not gonna deal with this. I'm just gonna go back."

"Don't worry about that. They're coming back for you anyway."

"What?"

"That's what you wanted, right?"

Dess stopped. She turned around so that she was yelling at James's back. "You'd have to be crazy to go there!"

"At least I know what I'm doing," James hollered back, still advancing toward the badlands.

Dess watched him incredulously, then grabbed a fistful of her hair and sighed irritably. She had no idea as to what she was doing, but she wasn't about to let James get himself killed. Not that there was much she could do to protect them. She tugged harder on her hair when she realized she'd left her weapons at home. She figured that if anything was wrong, he'd sense it, so she sighed and stomped some more, before finally hurrying after James and slipping her hand into his. "If you're not right about this-," she warned.

He smiled. "I'll send them someplace else. How's Honduras this time of year?"

"They'd never believe that."

"It'd be evil of me, wouldn't it?"

"It really would."

"Even if I sent Melissa away?"

Dess hesitated. "Well-,"

James grinned. "Who's the evil one now?"

"Just keep walking James."


End file.
